Protest in La Graciosa after "more than 8 years of ordeal" for a license for his home

Victoriano Hernández reports having "a 33% disability due to depression" and having spent "more than 30,000 euros on rent" due to the City Council's lack of response to finish his house.

September 28 2020 (13:52 WEST)
Victoriano Hernández Protests Before the Municipal Office of La Graciosa
Victoriano Hernández Protests Before the Municipal Office of La Graciosa

A resident of La Graciosa started a protest in front of the Municipal Office of the eighth island this Monday. Victoriano Hernández claims to have been suffering "more than eight years of ordeal" waiting for a license from the City Council to finish his home.

"They have taken 1,550 days to finish a project made by the City Council itself and I have spent more than 30,000 euros on rent for a house", said this 54-year-old from La Graciosa, who points out that, as a result, he has a 33% disability "due to depression".

As he detailed in an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, the house was self-built in 1991 and legalized some time later. "But due to circumstances of life, my wife and I separated", Victoriano Hernández pointed out, explaining that "more than eight years ago" they wanted to divide the house "through the architect of the City Council". "He is the one who is handling the issue because we joined a social housing plan", he specified.

Victoriano Hernández, with his current partner, protesting in front of the Municipal Office of La Graciosa         

In this regard, Victoriano explained that the house has 185 square meters and that "45 remain to be finished". "In 2019 they gave me great hope. A lawyer from the City Council and the acting mayor told me that by not responding for a while, due to administrative silence, I could start building", Victoriano Hernández related, who pointed out that, after waiting a month, "in March" of that year he started the works. However, four months later they were stopped.

"We started doing it calmly and, I don't know if it was because the elections came after, that in July they asked me for the documentation and sealed it off", said this man, who pointed out that the explanation he was given is that "administrative silence in the case of housing is not positive, but negative".

 

"They are teasing me"

Thus, he needs a license from the City Council to complete the works. "They told me that it would be ready in a short time, but time is passing and my life is going by quickly and I won't have anywhere to live", said this man, who currently lives in a rental property.

"With the pension I receive, everything goes to the rent of the apartment", added Victoriano Hernández, who has therefore decided to start a protest, together with his current partner, to get the City Council to give him a license to finish his house. "We want a solution now to be able to get under my house and, with the resources I have, be able to live quietly. I don't ask for more, it's a basic needs home, it's my first home", he demands.

And this resident of La Graciosa also feels that they are "teasing" him in the Consistory. "In the City Council, some days they tell me that the architect is working on it, other days that the project is already in Las Palmas to be approved by the PRUG and other times that it is in the College of Architects", he indicated. "Every day they tell us a different story and I don't know who to believe anymore", he added.

In addition, Victoriano Hernández says that in La Graciosa "there is another couple who are in the same situation". "And licenses are being given here. For residents, although counted on the fingers of one hand, it seems to me that they have been given to live day by day", he concluded.

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